Performance Analysis and Assessment of a TF-IDF Based Archetype-SNOMED-CT Binding Algorithm

Term bindings in archetypes are at a boundary between health information models and health terminology for dual model-based electronic health-care record (EHR) systems. The development of archetypes and the population of archetypes with bound terms is in its infancy. Terminological binding is currently performed “manually” by the teams who create archetypes. This process could be made more efficient, if it was supported by automatic tools. This paper presents a method for evaluating the performance of automatic code search approaches. In order to assess the quality of the automatic search, the authors extracted all the unique bound codes from 1133 archetypes from an archetype repository. These “manually bound ”SNOMED-CT codes were compared against the codes suggested by the authors\u27 automatic search and used for assessing the algorithm\u27s performance in terms of accuracy and category matching. The result of this study shows a sensitivity analysis of a set of parameters relevant to the matching process

Search algorithms in information systems

У методичних рекомендаціяхпредставлено основні концепції інформаційного пошуку, наводиться огляд базових моделей пошуку інформації та загальних методів оцінки якості пошуку інформації, що розглядаються в межах теорії інформаційного пошуку. Окрім того наведені основні етапи та узагальнений алгоритм пошуку інформації, загальні рекомендації щодо організації структури повнотекстових баз даних. Окремо надаються рекомендації щодо детальної оптимізації веб-сайтів для значного покращення розпізнавання змісту пошуковими системами та взагалі користувачами. Проводиться детальний екскурс в історію розвитку формату збереження даних XML, визначається теза використання наведеного формату як найкращого формату для збереження неструктурованих документів, оптимального для пошукових систем. Для спеціалістів у галузі інформаційного пошуку, студентів, аспірантів, також стане корисним при підготовці навчальних курсів з теоретичних і практичних питань інформаційного пошуку.These methodical guidelines present basic concepts of information search provide an overview of basic models of information search and general methods of assessing the quality of information search considered within the theory of information search. In addition, it presents the main stages and general information search algorithm, general recommendations on the structure of the full-text databases organization, detailed recommendations on optimizing websites for significant improvement of the content recognition by search systems and users. It offers a detailed overview of the history of the data storage format XML as the best format for storing unstructured documents, optimal for search systems. For experts in the field of information search, students, postgraduate students. This material will also be useful in the process of designing the training courses on theoretical and practical issues of information search

Best practice in undertaking and reporting health technology assessments : Working Group 4 report

[Executive Summary] The aim of Working Group 4 has been to develop and disseminate best practice in undertaking and reporting assessments, and to identify needs for methodologic development. Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary activity that systematically examines the technical performance, safety, clinical efficacy, and effectiveness, cost, costeffectiveness, organizational implications, social consequences, legal, and ethical considerations of the application of a health technology (18). HTA activity has been continuously increasing over the last few years. Numerous HTA agencies and other institutions (termed in this report “HTA doers”) across Europe are producing an important and growing amount of HTA information. The objectives of HTA vary considerably between HTA agencies and other actors, from a strictly political decision making–oriented approach regarding advice on market licensure, coverage in benefits catalogue, or investment planning to information directed to providers or to the public. Although there seems to be broad agreement on the general elements that belong to the HTA process, and although HTA doers in Europe use similar principles (41), this is often difficult to see because of differences in language and terminology. In addition, the reporting of the findings from the assessments differs considerably. This reduces comparability and makes it difficult for those undertaking HTA assessments to integrate previous findings from other HTA doers in a subsequent evaluation of the same technology. Transparent and clear reporting is an important step toward disseminating the findings of a HTA; thus, standards that ensure high quality reporting may contribute to a wider dissemination of results. The EUR-ASSESS methodologic subgroup already proposed a framework for conducting and reporting HTA (18), which served as the basis for the current working group. New developments in the last 5 years necessitate revisiting that framework and providing a solid structure for future updates. Giving due attention to these methodologic developments, this report describes the current “best practice” in both undertaking and reporting HTA and identifies the needs for methodologic development. It concludes with specific recommendations and tools for implementing them, e.g., by providing the structure for English-language scientific summary reports and a checklist to assess the methodologic and reporting quality of HTA reports

The utilisation of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment

The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions. The utilisation of health research in policy-making should contribute to policies that may eventually lead to desired outcomes, including health gains. In this article, exploration of these issues is combined with a review of various forms of policy-making. When this is linked to analysis of different types of health research, it assists in building a comprehensive account of the diverse meanings of research utilisation. Previous studies report methods and conceptual frameworks that have been applied, if with varying degrees of success, to record utilisation in policy-making. These studies reveal various examples of research impact within a general picture of underutilisation. Factors potentially enhancing utilisation can be identified by exploration of: priority setting; activities of the health research system at the interface between research and policy-making; and the role of the recipients, or 'receptors', of health research. An interfaces and receptors model provides a framework for analysis. Recommendations about possible methods for assessing health research utilisation follow identification of the purposes of such assessments. Our conclusion is that research utilisation can be better understood, and enhanced, by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies

AutoDiscern: Rating the Quality of Online Health Information with Hierarchical Encoder Attention-based Neural Networks

Patients increasingly turn to search engines and online content before, or in place of, talking with a health professional. Low quality health information, which is common on the internet, presents risks to the patient in the form of misinformation and a possibly poorer relationship with their physician. To address this, the DISCERN criteria (developed at University of Oxford) are used to evaluate the quality of online health information. However, patients are unlikely to take the time to apply these criteria to the health websites they visit. We built an automated implementation of the DISCERN instrument (Brief version) using machine learning models. We compared the performance of a traditional model (Random Forest) with that of a hierarchical encoder attention-based neural network (HEA) model using two language embeddings, BERT and BioBERT. The HEA BERT and BioBERT models achieved average F1-macro scores across all criteria of 0.75 and 0.74, respectively, outperforming the Random Forest model (average F1-macro = 0.69). Overall, the neural network based models achieved 81% and 86% average accuracy at 100% and 80% coverage, respectively, compared to 94% manual rating accuracy. The attention mechanism implemented in the HEA architectures not only provided 'model explainability' by identifying reasonable supporting sentences for the documents fulfilling the Brief DISCERN criteria, but also boosted F1 performance by 0.05 compared to the same architecture without an attention mechanism. Our research suggests that it is feasible to automate online health information quality assessment, which is an important step towards empowering patients to become informed partners in the healthcare process

Closing the loop: assisting archival appraisal and information retrieval in one sweep

In this article, we examine the similarities between the concept of appraisal, a process that takes place within the archives, and the concept of relevance judgement, a process fundamental to the evaluation of information retrieval systems. More specifically, we revisit selection criteria proposed as result of archival research, and work within the digital curation communities, and, compare them to relevance criteria as discussed within information retrieval's literature based discovery. We illustrate how closely these criteria relate to each other and discuss how understanding the relationships between the these disciplines could form a basis for proposing automated selection for archival processes and initiating multi-objective learning with respect to information retrieval

Learning the Designer's Preferences to Drive Evolution

This paper presents the Designer Preference Model, a data-driven solution that pursues to learn from user generated data in a Quality-Diversity Mixed-Initiative Co-Creativity (QD MI-CC) tool, with the aims of modelling the user's design style to better assess the tool's procedurally generated content with respect to that user's preferences. Through this approach, we aim for increasing the user's agency over the generated content in a way that neither stalls the user-tool reciprocal stimuli loop nor fatigues the user with periodical suggestion handpicking. We describe the details of this novel solution, as well as its implementation in the MI-CC tool the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer. We present and discuss our findings out of the initial tests carried out, spotting the open challenges for this combined line of research that integrates MI-CC with Procedural Content Generation through Machine Learning.Comment: 16 pages, Accepted and to appear in proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary and bio-inspired Computation, EvoApplications 202

International palliative care research priorities: A systematic review

© 2020 The Author(s). Background: There has been increasing evidence and debate on palliative care research priorities and the international research agenda. To date, however, there is a lack of synthesis of this evidence, examining commonalities, differences, and gaps. To identify and synthesize literature on international palliative care research priorities originating from Western countries mapped to a quality assessment framework. Methods: A systematic review of several academic and grey databases were searched from January 2008-June 2019 for studies eliciting research priorities in palliative care in English. Two researchers independently reviewed, critically appraised, and conducted data extraction and synthesis. Results: The search yielded 10,235 articles (academic databases, n = 4108; grey literature, n = 6127), of which ten were included for appraisal and review. Priority areas were identified: service models; continuity of care; training and education; inequality; communication; living well and independently; and recognising family/carer needs and the importance of families. Methodological approaches and process of reporting varied. There was little representation of patient and caregiver driven agendas. The priorities were mapped to the Donabedian framework for assessing quality reflecting structure, process and outcomes and key priority areas. Conclusions: Limited evidence exists pertaining to research priorities across palliative care. Whilst a broad range of topics were elicited, approaches and samples varied questioning the credibility of findings. The voice of the care provider dominated, calling for more inclusive means to capture the patient and family voice. The findings of this study may serve as a template to understand the commonalities of research, identify gaps, and extend the palliative care research agenda

Embedding a curriculum-based information literacy programme at the University of Bedfordshire

This article describes the development of an information literacy programme that was embedded into the Psychology curriculum during 2007-2008. The programme was a collaboration between a faculty librarian and the Department of Psychology and utilized a blended learning approach along with a variety of teaching and assessment methods. This paper also reports on the initial findings from an ongoing evaluation assessing the impact of the programme on students' learning and information skills development. There had been an acknowledgement within the Department of Psychology and at broader University level of the importance of supporting students' and graduates' employability. Indeed, when the University undertook a curriculum redesign in 2008 (known as CRe8) the University recognized that 'there are four core skills areas at the core of 'graduateness' and employability that the University expects all courses to emphasise: communication; Information literacy; Research and evaluation; and creativity and critical thinking' (University of Bedfordshire, 2009). The development and implementation of an information literacy programme was therefore aligned closely with the University's goals at that time